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The Car’s the Star: Famous Film and TV Motors. Part 1
Sureterm Direct is the UK’s largest classic car insurer and we know instantly when a car has appeared in a popular TV or film as enquiries for classic car insurance for that particular model shoot through the roof.
So here’s the first installment of our guide to the most famous TV and film cars on the planet. We’ve even included a van – see if you can guess which programme that’s from!
TV Programme: Ashes to Ashes
Car: Audi UR quattro:
While the star of the show is Gene Hunt, a fictional police detective in a TV series set in 1980’s Britain, his bright red Audi UR quattro plays more than just a supporting role.
The car sprang into real life in 1980 and with 4WD and a whole raft of amazing other German car-making wizardry packed into it, the car became an instant cult classic.
Brilliant on the road, brilliant on the rally scene. And now in much demand thanks to Gene Hunt. If you can lay your hands on one – do it. Easy and cost-effective to insure.
Our star rating: 4 stars
TV Programme: Kingdom
Car: Alvis TE21
Fruity old thespian Stephen Fry plays an East of England lawyer in this gentle comedy drama and he scoots around Norfolk in a fabulous Alvis TE21 drophead – sparking an interest in classic cars from a whole new generation.
Alvis is a weird marque. In the best part of 50 years from 1920 onwards, the Coventry-based firm produced cars that were noted for top quality, great handling and a nifty, sporty character. The TE21 model arrived at the end of 1963 - and with a stiff suspension it could shift a bit.
The TE21 was pretty heavy yet managed a very respectable top speed of over 120mph and was available with automatic transmission or a five-speed manual gearbox. It’s a very, very stylish classic – and a restored version could easily set you back ?100,000.
Our star rating: 2 stars
TV Programme: The Sweeney
Car: Mk1 Ford Consul GT
When ITV in the UK screened The Sweeney for the first time, the programme marked a whole new concept in cop shows. Previously fed a diet of boring old ‘bobbies’ like Z-cars and Dixon of Dock Green, The Sweeney had fast cars, swearing, sex scenes, drinking and extreme violence.
And it made household names of main characters Reagan and Carter. In series 1 and 2 the mainstay of the CID crew was a copper brown Mk1 Ford Consul GT, reg NHK 295M – although in later series, Ford Granadas were the norm.
The Consul had front bucket seats as standard, a central floor-mounted remote control gear shift and the speedometer, fuel and temperature gauges all had black non- reflecting dials.
The Consul ‘L pack offered special seats, loop pile carpet colour keyed to the interior, vanity mirror, heated rear screen, clock and trip mileage recorder (not that the Sweeney ever bothered with anything within the law!). No surprises then, that they went for the GT pack option, which included the larger 3.0 V6 engine – capable of 0-60mph in 9 seconds.
Our star rating: 2 stars
TV Programme: Inspector Morse
Car: 1960 Mk II Jaguar
In Colin Dexter's novels, grouchy copper Inspector Morse's car was a classic Lancia, but ITV used a Jaguar MK II 2.4 from the start of the television series. In fact, the Carmen red Jag became so iconic that new editions of the earlier novels have been changed so that Morse's car is a Jaguar!
The Jaguar Mark II ‘a compact four-door saloon’ was introduced in October 1959, at a price of just ?1,534.00 and was made until 1967. Morse's Jaguar is a 2.4 litre model with a twin overhead-cam 6-cylinder 2,483-cc engine giving 120 bhp.
It’s a bit slow for TV coppers, only capable of accelerating from 0-60 mph in 17.3 seconds, with a maximum speed of 96.3 mph, but Morse didn’t exactly need to burn around the university city of Oxford. Jaguar made almost 84,000 Mk11s, 25,070 of Morse’s 2.4 variation.
Our star rating: 3 stars
TV programme: James Bond films
Car: Aston Martin DB5
Spy 007’s love of fast cars is evident all the way through the original Ian Fleming novels and when they eventually made the silver screen, car lovers everywhere drooled over his gorgeous DB5.
The 1963 DB5 is famous for being the first and most recognised Bond car, featuring notably in: Goldfinger, Thunderball, GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, and Casino Royale, while it also made background appearances in The World Is Not Enough and Diamonds Are Forever.
The DB5's engine had been enlarged from the previous DB4’s 3.7L to 4.0L, while the addition of a five-speed transmission and three SU carburetors enabled the car to pull 282hp and propel it to 141 mph (238 km/h).
Standard equipment on the DB5 included reclining seats, pile carpets, electric windows and a fire extinguisher. All models had 4 seats and 2 doors. The UK recommended list price of the sports saloon (coupe) in December 1963 was ?4,248 including Purchase Tax, the convertible was ?4,562.
Our star rating: 5 stars
TV Programme: Dukes of Hazzard
Car: 1969 Dodge Charger
Testosterone-filled teenage boys remember a couple things about the Dukes of Hazzard – Catherine Bach’s never-ending legs (and pert bum in spray-on denim shorts) and the General Lee car.
The General Lee was a 1969 Dodge Charger with a 426 Hemi in every season of the hit programme (except season two, where it had a 440 Magnum engine). It was also said to be the Road/Track model.
Bright orange with a Confederate battle flag painted on the roof, and the words ‘General Lee’ and number ‘01’ on each door, the car’s name refers to the American Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
The show also used 1968 Chargers since the start (which shared mostly the same sheet metal) by changing the grill and tail lights to the 1969 model year style, and smoothing over the round '68 side marker lights, which were rectangular on the '69 model year.
Our star rating: 3 stars
TV Programme: Starsky and Hutch
Car: Ford Torino
We loved the 1970’s. Big hair, disco music, chunky sweaters – and all of this in just one TV series. Los Angeles cops Starsky and Hutch fought villains in a two-door Ford Torino, which was red with a large white vector stripe.
It was nicknamed the Striped Tomato by Hutch but the term didn't come from the series’ writers - it came from a real-life comment that actor Paul Michael Glaser (Starsky) made. The standard Torino was pretty dull, so producers jazzed it up with a large white vector stripe, 5-slot alloys and larger rear tires. Air shocks were added to give the car an aggressive rake and it worked – especially for Ford, who built 1,000 replicas of the "Starsky and Hutch" car in the spring of 1976.
The ‘Starsky and Hutch’ replica was available with all Torino engines, and the limited production package was essentially a special paint option with the deluxe bumper group and dual colour-keyed sport mirrors as mandatory options. Seat colours were restricted to white or black and were available with all cloths and seating options.
Our star rating: 2 stars
TV Programme: Knight Rider
Car: 1982 Pontiac Trans Am
Forget Baywatch – bubble haired David ‘The Hof’ Hasselhoff first shot to fame in Knight Rider – a bonkers TV series that ran from 1982 to 1986 which featured KITT, a talking car equipped with mind-blowing gadgetry.
Unsurprisingly, given its low-budget cast, KITT became the star of the show, but then it was a gleaming black 1982 Pontiac Trans Am. The car oozed sex appeal and sparked a massive interest in American Classics, which exists still to this day.
By the way, KITT stands for ‘Knight Industries Two Thousand’ an eponymous doff of the cap to its weird technology-cum-crime fighting creators.
Our star rating: 3 stars
TV programme: The A-team
Car: The GMC van
Da-da-da, dada, da. Da, dada, da, da, dadada, da. It’s hard to believe any TV programmes, especially from Hollywood, could make vans sexy – but the A-team did it in bucket loads.
The black and metallic grey GMC van used by the A-Team – a crackpot collection of crime-fighting misfits – had a characteristic red stripe, black and red wheels, rooftop spoiler, and became an instant icon.
The van is a 1983 G-series which was heavily customised by the Universal Studios prop department. The engine is a 350 cid with minor modifications (mainly the carb and exhaust system), while the wheels are turbine style 15" painted black with red accents.
Other modifications include - quad headlight conversion, full front brushbar, fog/driving lights, exterior sun visor, quad square exhaust tips (each side in front of rear wheels), and custom made rear wing. Interior was custom-white bucket seats, shag carpet, and custom gun case in the back.
It also had beefy air shocks in the rear to improve handling, which was poor and underpowered. In fact, scenes where it burns out were done by spraying bleach in front of and onto the rear tyres which creates billowing grey smoke.
Our star rating: 2 stars.
TV Programme: Back To The Future (Film)
Car: De Lorean DMC-12
Look, make no bones about it, apart from James Bond’s DB5 this is THE iconic TV and film car. It grabbed attention in real life and it grabbed attention on-screen.
The De Lorean DMC-12 became a time machine for Back To The Future, but was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro and manufactured for real in 1981 by the De Lorean Motor Company, in Northern Ireland. The 2-door coupe had a 2.8 L (2849 cc), V6 engine and was available in 5-speed manual or 3-speed automatic transmissions.
It was the only model ever produced by the company and featured gull-wing doors with a fiberglass ‘underbody’, to which non-structural brushed stainless steel panels are fixed.
The first prototype appeared in March 1976, and production officially began in 1981 (with the first DMC-12 rolling off the production line on January 21st) at the DMC factory in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland. During its production, several aspects of the car were changed, such as the bonnet style, wheels and interior.
About nine thousand DMC-12s were made before production stopped in late 1982.
Our star rating: 5 stars
TV programme: Herbie ‘The Love Bug’
Car: 1963 Volkswagen Beetle ragtop sedan.
Peace and love, man. With the amount of ‘acid’ dropped in the hippified atmosphere of the late 60s, we weren’t all that surprised when a film starring a humanised VW beetle appeared.
Herbie The Love Bug was a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle deluxe ragtop sedan painted in Volkswagen L87 pearl white. The interior would normally be a matching white but Herbie's interior was painted a special non-reflective grey, so the camera and studio lights would not reflect.
In this original 1968 film, Herbie’s stripes differ from those in later movies - the stripes do not cover the valances or louvers of the car and the blue is a lighter shade. Also, Herbie features color-keyed running boards, while in later films the running boards are standard black.
Our star rating: 2 stars
About the Author
John Kelly is the website editor at Sureterm Direct, the UK’s largest classic car insurance company.